Enterprise Architects play a significant role in synthesizing all the enterprise factors into a decision framework and facilitating appropriate business initiatives to execute the strategy. To improve decision effectiveness, what are the worst mistakes EAs perhaps make, causing decision ineffectiveness and business failures?
Develop wrong assumptions in terms of stakeholder requirements: In traditional companies, big or small decisions are often based on static or outdated information available and the “gut feeling” of decision-makers. Enterprise Architects are not talking about mistakes they may have made in the technological sense; rather than developing wrong assumptions in terms of stakeholder requirements because they do not listen, question, or understand carefully, and lose buy-in due to the lack of empathetic communication.
Enterprise Architects value in humanistic terms, they shouldn’t lose the sight of all requirements and relationships. As requirements are gathered, managed, and discussed with executives and teams, facilitating requirements negotiations is very beneficial to keep everyone involved and close decision blind spots. Enterprise architects understand where all the functional boundaries are and who is organizationally associated with each requires managers having a holistic perspective to communicate and prioritize, focus on those requirements whose improvement has the most benefit to the business, and keep the stakeholders focused on them. If a decision negatively affects a stakeholder, make sure the stakeholder understands why the decision is the best in the "bigger picture," and ensure that the business as a whole is superior to the sum of pieces.
Forgets to think about or question what that decision might mean to the company's end customers: Too many people in traditional organizations think that the customer is not in their territory. Or sometimes, Enterprise Architects focus on what the executives want but forget to think about or question what that decision might mean to the company's end customers. The customer is everyone's business in the digital era, and if a group of departments does not embrace this mindset, then the decisions made are too inward-looking and processes are destined to not reach exceptional performance and achieve the vision to build a customer-centric organization.
Digital leaders and professionals are all facing pressure to make either strategic or tactical decisions every day, be intelligent with humility, keep the right balance between information and intuition. The most important thing is to be willing to listen and probe to identify the goal of the customer experience improvement. The two prime questions any business should understand about customers are: What do they buy and why do they buy it? Ask customers need-based, issue-based or gap-finding questions; then, follow-up with clarification of questions, in order to make customer-centric decisions.
Strategic decision-making lacks the updated information and much needed essential iterative process dynamics: Sometimes the decision is managed as the end effect, not the beginning. The importance of the process becomes critical as decisions become highly complex and involve diverse stakeholders. Decision effectiveness relies on an agreed common approach, not a predetermined set of "one size fits all" planning. The entire decision-making processes include understanding the need, engaging key stakeholders, ensuring effective communication, assessing alternatives, developing consensus, planning, executing, and following up. They are not linear steps, but iterative continuums.
Most of what poor decisions have boiled down to lack of updated information, decision-maker bias, ineffective processes, etc. The abundance of information flow and the advanced digital technologies make it possible to gain real-time insight and business foresight if organizations are truly being digitized underneath, at the process level. If the right people can get the right information and the decision-making process is fine-designed and well-executed, you have the highest probability of getting the best outcome in the state of knowledge accessible at the time of decision.
There is fuzziness in the decision because there is fuzziness in conflicting criteria, and there are hidden barriers on the way. Try to challenge your logic and assumptions. It is the responsibility of each individual to examine their mental strength and to make sure they are open to true understanding. The “worst mistakes” can be avoided by identifying blind spots, pulling all resources, complementing knowledge and filling insight gaps in order to improve decision maturity.
0 comments:
Post a Comment